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How Nutella Became The World’s Favorite
‘Breakfast Spread’
Let’s get real – you probably even have a tub of Nutella sitting
in your kitchen as you read this.
A jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds. And with the amount
of Nutella produced in 2013, you could circle the globe 1.4
times.
How did the post-war affordable luxury become the world’s
favorite breakfast spread?
1. Nutella found a niche market, by
competing with a unique offering in the
breakfast foods industry
Nutella is marketed as a key ingredient to a nutritious and
balanced breakfast, as an alternative to jam, peanut butter and
other breakfast spreads.
While it has a high sugar and fat content, emphasis is placed on
Nutella’s all natural ingredients, with no additives or coloring.
When Nutella first started out, it was branded as something that
could be eaten with everything. However, this marketing
strategy didn’t work too well with customers who didn’t believe
that Nutella was the miracle spread it claimed to be.
In 2009, Nutella started to focus its branding on being a
breakfast staple, helping customers to understand its best use.
This strategy worked, and Nutella soon became an international breakfast sensation.
Word-of-mouth tip: To succeed, find a niche market to compete in, branding your product as a novel alternative to
other traditional options.
2. Entering into pop-culture as The Food to eat via public interest and recipe
sharing
Nutella has a strong online social following, with the majority of
its online presence coming from communities sharing creative
Nutella breakfast recipes.
These recipes are shared on popular platforms such as Youtube,
Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.
In 2014, Buzzfeed also published an article “19 Glorious Ways
To Eat Nutella For Breakfast”, featuring a curated list of recipes
from several online contributors.
Via such public interest, Nutella has achieved cult-like food
status to be the go-to delicious chocolate spread everyone needs.
Word-of-mouth tip: A great product generates its own publicity
and promotion organically via word-of-mouth.
3. Marketing itself as a family-friendly product
Nutella advertisements always feature images of family, filled
with a bunch of excited children joyfully eating their Nutellafilled breakfast.
These images give consumers the idea that Nutella is a familyfriendly product, and consumption of Nutella will bring joy to
the entire family.
Especially considering that Nutella is often bought during
grocery shopping (often a family affair), such positive-friendly
imagery further emphasizes how Nutella is essential to the
family breakfast experience.
Word-of-mouth tip: Understanding consumer culture and
creating powerful campaign images that appeal to consumer
culture will go a long way in generating WOM for the brand.
4. Sponsorship of the Italian national
football team
Before Nutella became a global phenomenon, its first
turning point in the global market came in 1988 when
Nutella signed its three-year sponsorship of the Italian
national football team.
This brought about brand recognition throughout the world,
as people started to link Nutella with Italian national
sentiment.
The sponsorship of a national athletic team also made people
associate Nutella with healthy eating and a balanced diet.
Word-of-mouth tip: Choosing the right brand ambassador is
key. Prominent individuals and groups with a mass
following are always under the watchful eye of the media,
and will generate tons of hype and publicity for the brand.
5. Engagement with customers on social media
Nutella has a strong focus on social media engagement, and actively uses visual-heavy platforms such as Facebook,
Tumblr and Pinterest to generate publicity for the brand.
To celebrate Nutella’s 50th birthday in 2014, Nutella launched the “50 Years Full of Stories” campaign that asked fans
of the brand to share their fondest memories of the delicious hazelnut spread from around the world.
A total of 76,398 stories were shared, using the hashtag #nutellastories.
Word-of-mouth tip: Personal engagement with fans on social media platforms is getting more and more common
these days and many brands are doing it too. Fans love it when their stories are heard and shared by the brand, and
such organic interactions generate tons of their own WOM.
6. World Nutella Day!
Since 2007, February 5th is celebrated as World Nutella Day. The
international holiday was first started by Nutella loyalist Sara Rosso,
but the rights to the holiday was transferred to the Ferrero Group in
2015, making it official.
At the beginning, celebrations went slightly out of hand as a number
of unauthorised events and promotional activities were organised by
enthusiastic loyalists, unintentionally interfering with Nutella’s brand
strategy.
By taking over the rights to World Nutella Day, Nutella is better able
to ensure a seamless marketing strategy, one that fits in with the brand
vision.
Word-of-mouth tip: Loyal customers are an asset to any brand.
Leverage on fan loyalty and manage it so that it fits in with the brand vision.
Recap: How did Nutella establish its name as the go-to breakfast spread via
WOM?
1. Targeted a niche market (Breakfast food)
2. Became a pop culture topic, which generated WOM
3. A ‘Family-friendly’ advertising strategy allowed Nutella to further enhance its name as a good and holistic breakfast
food
4. Sponsorship of the football team allowed Nutella to cement its name as a ‘healthy food’, as well as establish itself within
its Italian heritage and pride
5. Good use of social media helps generate positive WOM
6. World Nutella day gave fans a day to celebrate about the delicious spread and further spread word about Nutella
Nutella Marketing Report
NUTELLA REPORT
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
Main body
2.0 Consumer behavior theory
2.1 How Nutella uses target market information to influence the decision-making process
2.2 How a family decision making unit can encourages purchase
2.3 How values and attitude encourage purchase
3.0 Marketing mix
3.1 Product
3.1.2 price
3.1.3 promotion
3.1.4 Place
4.0 conclusion
Reference
Appendices
Evaluates a consumer favourite
1.0 Introduction
This report is an evaluation of Nutella, discussing its target market along with how Nutella uses their
consumer behaviour theory and marketing mix analysis to persuade consumers to purchase Nutella for their
household. Nutella was created by The Ferrero Group; their history shows their success as the group has
been around for three generations. The invention of Nutella was an innovative solution to the shortage of
cocoa and now it’s a well-known household brand which is enjoyed by all ages. Nutella has a mass
following and love, as fans united to dedicate one day to their favourite spread February 5th, 2007 (World
Nutella Day, 2018)
Main body
2.0 Consumer behaviour theory
This section of the report will focus on consumer behaviour theory and how Nutella utilises the theory to
retain their customers along with attracting new customers. Consumer buyer behaviour can be identified as
the consumers’ final decision of buying goods and services for personal consumption (Kotler et al, 2017)
The Ferrero Group understanding of this theory will ensure the company’s success of Nutella with their
existing customers and potential ones.
2.1 How Nutella uses target market information to influence the decision-making process
Nutella has a wide demographic; allowing them to market to several different age groups. Nutella’s most
popular age groups are under 24, 35-44 and 45-55 (Appendix 1).
The Nutella target market is children and families, this can be seen by their campaign “wake up to Nutella”.
This campaign has been around since 2007 – the advertisement called ‘toaster dance’ (Appendix 2)
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FAykxoBPV4 ===
Source: https://www.natriciabernard.com/showreel/commercials/nutella/
Aimed to attract parents by expressing balanced diets for their children when using Nutella for breakfast.
Find out more
On 5th February 2007, Nutella had a day dedicated to them all over the world (World Nutella Day), which
was made possible through fans petitioning, this shows that Nutella has a huge target market to exploit as
it also consists of people who love chocolate. World Nutella Day has been a massive success as it shows
how Nutella’s following Is expanding as the website encourages people to try Nutella through honest
reviews. Nutella has done collaborations with famous YouTubers that aim to spread the word. This year
Nutella team up with Alfie and Zoella to create a vlog which includes them using Nutella to create a feast of
deserts. (Appendix 3). https://www.nutelladay.com/
Nutella needs to understand their target market information and how it will affect the consumers’ behaviour
decision-making process as it would aid them in better marketing strategies. Appendix 4 shows how a
decision-making process is analysed by a consumer, it states the five stages of influences need to be
considered before a purchase is made and after. There can be some modifications to the stages as the
consumers tend to skip stages regarding routine purchases. Consumers that purchase Nutella regularly
would skip the stages, as they know the satisfaction the brand brings to them compared to another. This
can be seen in the number of sales that Nutella make every year. Nutella shows their impressive sales
through classics architecture that is well known by consumers (Appendix 5).
2.2 How a family decision making unit can encourages purchase
Family members can influence the consumer buying behaviour as each member task will differ depending
on the items being purchased. When shopping as a family, the main shopper does not act as an individual,
as they need to consider others in the family and incorporate their needs and taste (Brassington and Pettitt,
2013). In the family the parents will ultimately be the purchaser and decider of the products; this is seen in
figure 1 through the ‘family decision making unit’ diagram. It shows that the rest of the family will take the
additional roles such as the user or influencer. Nutella needs to be aware of the power which the family
decision-making unit can have on product purchase, as this is important to help increase sales. This means
they need to market their products correctly to attract potential families as well as keeping the existing
ones. Nutella’s target strategies are to market the product to children which creates an initiator in the family
this will then encourage purchase.
Figure 1- family as a decision-making unit
Source: Brassington and Pettitt
2.3 How values and attitude encourage purchase
Value is described as a belief regarding a desirable destination and guides selection of behaviour (Solomon
et al,2016). Nutella’s values can be clearly seen in their reports (Appendix 7). An important ingredient to
make Nutella is cocoa, Nutella makes sure that their cocoa is done through the World Cocoa Foundation a
non-profit organisation that empowers their farmers and communities while also promoting human rights
and conserving the environment (world cocoa foundation). A company’s values are significantly important
as consumers will consider this factor when purchasing the products or even remaining with the company.
As Nutella’s value is to provide their customers with the best product through making sure that their
materials used are from an ethical background with a long history will encourage purchasing of Nutella as
consumer values have been achieved.
A consumer can develop a certain attitude towards a product or service; these attitudes will affect the
buyers’ behaviour. This shows the importance of how attitude can influence consumer judgement, whether
it’s through perception, evaluation or even decision-making process (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013). There
are different types of attitudes the consumer could have towards a product or service; there is a cognitive
attitude, and this relates to the consumer’s beliefs or disbelief. A consumer might understand Nutella’s
campaign and agree that the product is healthy for their family to have. Using correct marketing strategies
and relaying the intended information Nutella was able to convince the consumer of the benefit Nutella
would bring to their household. Since Nutella’s message was correctly understood the consumer would be
more willing to purchase the product along with recommending the product to others furthering Nutella’s
sales.
3.0 Marketing mix
McDonald and Meldrum (2013) described the marketing mix as the main demand influencing variables that
are available to an organization. Since the consumer will be making a purchase with the supplier, they will
be responding to a wide range of variables that are unknowingly attached. The marketing mix is further
broken down into the four P’s; product, price, promotion and place.
3.1 Product
The product is seen as a physical good or service that can offer tangible or intangible attributes that are
viewed necessarily for a person or organization, that is worthwhile that the consumer is prepared to
exchange money to acquire the item (Brassington and Pettitt, 2013). The Ferrero group are exchanging their
consumers a tangible good; the consumer recognises the satisfaction the product will bring and are willing
to exchange cash to purchase the convenience good which is Nutella.
From consumer response through sales of the product, the marketers can assess if they have achieved their
objective along with marketed the product to the correct target market. This can be done through a
product life cycle, this was created by Raymond Vernon is 1966 an American economist. The diagram shows
stages a product is in there are four stages, these are introduction, growth, maturity and decline. A product
will experience different levels of success in its life depending on which stage it’s in. If the product is in the
early stages, then the success is different compared to maturity. Figure 1 below shows which life stage
Nutella is currently in.
Figure 2 – Nutella lifecycle
Source: https://geileon.com/blog/product-life-cycle-marketing-management-introduction/
Figure 3 Nutella packaging
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Ferrero-Nutella-Hazelnut-Spread-26-5/dp/B008TMIO2M
Packaging is interesting as Nutella is spelt with 2 different colours black and red. By doing this the brand is
eye-catching and helps the brand differentiate from other brands. These colours would be able to recognise
world-wide due to the company’s outstanding reputation.
3.1.2 price
Brassington and Pettitt (2013) define price as being a value that is placed on something, that a consumer is
willing to purchase to acquire something else. The most common way to measure price is through money,
as it’s the most convenient medium of exchange that requires a set price. Before a consumer purchases an
item, they weigh up price against their need to see if it’s necessary. The factors that consumers weigh up
before making their decision is shown in figure 2 below:
Figure 4 – factors for consumer weigh up
Brassington and Pettitt
These factors would be considered before the consumer buys Nutella. For example, functionality Nutella
would bring to their life, resulting in saving time for breakfast. The personal benefit could be bringing them
comfort due to the rich chocolate in the product. With all these factors the financial factor of the product
would outweigh the rest, as different retailers sell the product at different prices (appendix 8).
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3.1.3 promotion
Promotional mix is where a company such as Nutella would attempt to directly communicate to their target
market, through five different marketing communications. These are advertising, sales promotion, personal
selling, public relations and direct and digital marketing. This can be seen in figure 3 below:
Figure 5 – Source: Brassington and Pettit, 2013
The promotional mix is used to promote consumer products in the most efficient way, through these
mediums. However, the communications would be used in different levels depending on the product.
Nutella’s communication would be all 5, but personal selling would not be a massive factor due to Nutella
being a fast-moving consumer good also not durable. Nutella mostly use advertising to promote their
products to their consumers through television adverts, bus stop poster etc. This allows them to attract an
audience on a bigger scale compared to direct marketing. The main purpose Nutella would use the
promotional mix is to make sure that their consumers receive the correct message regarding the product.
3.1.4 Place
Marketing channel allows the product to be available for the consumer to buy the product as there is a
place established for them to do so. The channel includes different members that make it possible for the
product to be sold to the consumer. Figure 4 below shows the different members that are involved.
Figure 6- Source: Brassington and Pettitt, 2013
Nutella’s distribution channel includes producer, retailer and consumer. Nutella would need an intermediate
to sell the goods to the consumer, as they do not have another way to provide the consumer with the
product. Nutella’s intermediates would be the retailer, this is where the goods would be sold; Nutella has
lots of different retailers from the low end and high-end super, hypermarkets and even sold online
(appendix 9). Due to the mass places consumers can purchase Nutella, this encourages sales of the product
as the most store would have the product.
4.0 conclusion
In conclusion, the report discussed Nutella’s most common target markets and how they encourage the
sector to purchase Nutella and external factors that are controlled by the consumer and the consumer’s
behaviour towards purchasing goods, and how a company such as Nutella can have an influence on the
consumer so that they would purchase the product. The report also discusses Nutella’s own external factors
that they would have to manage so that they keep succeeding in their market this was seen through the
marketing mix in this is shows the different factors that Nutella would have to be conscious about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO0tn6B335c
Three Branding Strategies that That Made Nutella a Business Success.
This year hazelnut spread Nutella turned 50, and its huge fan base has been celebrating with events across
the country. Using the tagline “Spread the Happy,” Nutella has crossed the threshold from being a simple
food product to national obsession, and its rise to the top could be a case study for entrepreneurs on how to
run a business, and how to use effective branding strategies.
Consider this a jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 seconds. The company’s Facebook page has more followers
than Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling and First Lady Michelle Obama – combined. And its owner, Michele
Ferrero, is the richest man in Italy, according to Bloomberg.
But it wasn’t always this way. In fact, when Nutella came to the U.S. in 1983, it struggled to break into the
American market that was unfamiliar with hazelnut spreads.
While its popularity grew steadily, the product really took off after the company
employed three smart branding strategies:
1. It focused on the breakfast market.
When Nutella came to the U.S., it branded itself as an alternative to several things, such as chocolate, jam
and frosting, says Jason Biddle, branding expert and content developer for U.S. Imprints. Customers in
other countries had already discovered its many uses, so Nutella assumed the U.S. market would quickly
grasp the concept.
“But consumers just weren’t convinced that the signature spread was the miracle end-all-be-all type of
product that it was claiming to be,” says Biddle. “Nutella was trying to be all things to all people and
consequently became nothing to no one.”
In 2009, Nutella began focusing its branding almost purely on becoming a breakfast staple – something put
on toast, waffles and bagels. This move helped consumers understand the product’s best use, says Biddle.
“It gave them a concise call-to-action of ‘eat this with your breakfast’ instead of its previous catch-all call-toaction of ‘eat this with everything,’” he says.
2. It tapped into a universal desire.
The second branding strategy proved to be controversial. Nutella was marketing itself as being part of a
healthy diet. While the company never explicitly claimed the hazelnut spread was healthy in and of itself, it
did cleverly branded the spread to be associated with a balanced diet, says Biddle.
“Nutella did this so well, that the parent company Ferrero had to change its advertising and settle a $3
million on a class-action lawsuit for deceptive advertising,” says Biddle. “It’s actually the healthiness aspect
that led so many parents to incorporate the spread into their children’s diets, and Nutella managed to get a
foot in the door in the homes of its target consumers.”
3. It capitalized on social proof.
Once the spread was in homes, curiosity led consumers to experiment with using it on other items, and
soon people began sharing their creations on social media. This helped prove that Nutella was more than
just a breakfast spread without Nutella having push that point (as they did unsuccessfully in the beginning),
says Biddle.
“Social proof helps convince potential customers,” says Biddle. “It’s a case of, ‘If Susie is using Nutella,
then maybe I should try it, too.’ Nutella’s strategy for growing this foundation of fans into a thrall of followers
can be seen in its focused social media efforts.”
Nutella uses its social media pages to foster engagement with consumers. For example, in honor of its
birthday, Nutella launched a “50 Years Full of Stories” global campaign, asking fans to share memories of
using the spread. Those who shared stories via text, email or video received a personalized label and were
eligible to win prizes. Nutella also focuses on visual-heavy platforms such as its Tumblr, Facebook and
Pinterest pages.
“At this point, Nutella’s ability to grow its market share is based on the product itself,” says Biddle.
“Consumers may justify purchasing Nutella by taking the stance that the spread may not be healthiest but
there are worse things to eat, like donuts and cinnamon rolls. And when it tastes as good as it does, it’s
hard to give it up.”